"That son of a bitch Santos has kept the money": the conversations in the Civil Guard report that point to the former number 3 of the PSOE

MadridSantos Cerdán had been in the spotlight for days. by a report from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) that was under seal as part of a separate part of the Koldo case in the Supreme Court. Both the number three of the PSOE and the Socialists had until now shielded themselves by saying that no one had this document, which supposedly implicated the party's organizational secretary in a scheme of illegal kickbacks in the awarding of public works contracts. Finally, the report, almost 500 pages long, was released this Thursday and has caused a political earthquakeThe UCO (Central University of Catalonia) estimates at €620,000 the alleged financial compensation "managed" by Cerdán for José Luis Ábalos, former Minister of Transport, and his former advisor Koldo García in exchange for public works contracts. The document, to which ARA has had access, also includes the transcription of a total of eight audio recordings from between 2019 and 2023, of which Cerdán appears in five.

Given the "consistent indications" contained in this report, the magistrate presiding over the case at the Supreme Court, Leopoldo Puente, has offered Cerdán a voluntary statement on June 25. The PSOE's number three has announced that he will attend. In an order, Puente also summons Ábalos and Koldo, already under investigation in the main part of the case, for questioning the day before, June 24. According to the judge, the three allegedly participated in the improper awarding of public works contracts and accuses Cerdán of organized crime and bribery.

In the transcribed conversations, Koldo, Ábalos, and Cerdán discuss the amounts received and yet to be collected. In a recording from January 21, 2021, when Ábalos was still a minister and head of the Socialist Organization Secretariat, they review what had been paid up to that point. The former advisor tells Cerdán, who at the time was part of Ábalos's team in the PSOE, that the former minister had received "450 [thousand euros] in three envelopes." Faced with Koldo's insistence on this issue, the PSOE's number three silences him as a precaution. "Koldo! I don't want you to talk about that, it's not discussed," Cerdán replied. The Civil Guard points to the discretion he wanted to maintain as a sign of the illegality of his conduct. "There's no need to say so many things... period. You put it, you see it, and it breaks," Cerdán warned him, referring to the alternative method of communicating using a "paper" where he would write down the amounts. "If something comes up, it will be fixed, and it will be fixed with whoever it needs to be fixed with, period," he insisted.

Awards at Acciona

According to the Civil Guard, there were two sources of income from the alleged scheme. On the one hand, commissions derived from contracts awarded to the company Acciona, which would have amounted to 620,000 euros; and 1,300 euros from the Public Works and Irrigation Department (OPR) between mid-2022 and mid-2023. "The minister and his advisor initiated a process with [Víctor de] Aldama [the commission agent also under investigation by the Supreme Court], LIC, and ORP, which would have resulted in personal compensation outside of Cerdán, who would have learned about it due to the rumors reaching him from various parts of Spain. Cerdán himself, however, did not disapprove of the direct financial compensation to Ábalos and Koldo from Acciona, which he himself managed," the UCO notes. Civil Guard, leading to the dismissal of Ábalos and Koldo in July 2021.

A pre-awarded contract in Catalonia

Among the contracts allegedly pre-awarded to Acciona referred to in the recordings is one in Catalonia. Specifically, in Sant Feliu de Llobregat. This is an Adif tender awarded on November 4, 2019, for an initial sum of €51.7 million. On February 2, 2022, when Ábalos had already left the Ministry of Transport, Koldo demanded money from Cerdán for this transaction, for which, according to the former advisor, commissions were still owed. In that conversation, Koldo also claims outstanding money from Acciona contracts in Logroño (La Rioja) and Seville (Andalusia), which, combined, amount to €450,000. The amount Ábalos had already received (€550,000) was for two contracts awarded to the same company in Murcia. These were bids from Adif and the Directorate General of Highways. On the other hand, Ábalos reportedly received another 70,000 euros unrelated to any case.

"That son of a bitch Santos has kept the money."

The report estimates the amount Cerdán paid through mediation at €620,000, but it would not be the total promised. In another excerpt from the document, the UCO estimates that Ábalos should have received at least €1,070,000 for these contracts, of which he allegedly received exactly €620,000. In a November 2023 audio recording, Koldo complained that they were owed commission money and accused Cerdán of pocketing it. According to a conversation with Ábalos, the former minister still owed €450,000 and Koldo €130,000, plus an additional €100,000.

"That son of a bitch Santos kept money, he did it right in front of me, okay? And I'm pissed off," Koldo told Ábalos. While the former advisor called the former minister "a man of his life," he reproached Cerdán for having "used him for fifteen years without giving him anything." "And I can tell you a thousand things, like winning 500-euro bills that the Gipuzkoan man [Antxón Alonso, administrator of the Navarrese construction company Servinabar] gave him, and a thousand other things," he added. Koldo had worked with Cerdán before moving to the Ministry of Transport, when the Socialist leader was a deputy in Navarre.

Manipulation of the PSOE primaries

According to the UCO report, one of the tasks Koldo allegedly carried out for Cerdán relates to alleged manipulation of the results of the 2014 PSOE primaries that saw Pedro Sánchez declared Secretary General. The document states that on the day the elections were being held, Cerdán sent a message to Ábalos's would-be advisor asking him to secretly insert ballots into the ballot boxes: "When I'm done, write down as if the missing people had voted, without anyone seeing you, and put both ballots [in the box]."

The Civil Guard emphasizes that "Koldo's behavior during his tenure at the Ministry of Transport reportedly bore certain similarities to what he had done during his previous term in Navarre." Before Sánchez was in power and Cerdán was involved in regional politics, Koldo received direct payments from Servinabar, who was searched this Tuesday as part of this investigation. In August 2017, the former advisor sent Cerdán a receipt confirming a cash deposit of 600 euros to the Socialist number three, who was forced to resign this Thursday. "Santos had decision-making power" over Servinabar, a construction company with ties to Acciona, the UCO concludes.